THE FREE KINDERGARTENS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23225, 24 June 1937, Page 10

THE FREE KINDERGARTENS

The people of Dunedin have maintained a sympathetic interest in the work of the Free Kindergarten Association for nearly half a century—ever since kindergarten effort in the Dominion was inaugurated in this city. Needless to say, the Association, during its long period of useful existence, has experienced many vicissitudes. That it has been able to survive them all and at the same time gradually extend the scope of its activities speaks volumes for the quality of the service given, for the self-effacing enthusiasm of those who have willingly undertaken both supervising and administrative duties, and for the everwidening recognition of the movement's peculiar virtues. Yet not even, in its days of greatest expansion' did the Association have funds and to spare. No matter how much work it found the opportunity to do there was always the realisation of a need growing faster than the finances of the organisation, however much they were stretched, £ould meet. The withdrawal of the State capitation allowances in 1932, when depression conditions demanded the wholesale pruning of governmental expenditure, retarded the movement’s growth at a time when a vigorous policy of expansion would have brought real benefits to the community. To-day that difficult

and in many respects disappointing period of the Association’s history belongs to the past. Restoration of the capitation grants has been secured, and the Association has thus been relieved of its most pressing financial worries. Nevertheless, if it is to carry out the programme of expansion that it has in view, revenue received from other sources must still be liberally supplemented by public subscription. An openhanded response to the street appeal that is to be made to-morrow will banish many anxieties as to the future. The Association has already reopened one of the schools which it was compelled to close during the slump period, and it may be possible for it now to make a beginning in other districts where the need is pressing. Its aim is to make each of its modest establishments an extension of the home rather than a school, where the child mind can be prepared for the larger experience of primary education. How well it has succeeded in the past is a matter of common knowledge. What it may be able to do in the immediate future, in the direction of establishing and equipping new centres of infant training, for which no charge whatever is levied on parents, will depend almost entirely on the extent to which the public is impressed by this annual appeal for assistance.